Schréder STUDIO: Designed by Us, Tailored for Your City

Jean Luc Lambert - Schréder Urban Deco Business Segment Manager
Jean-Luc Lambert
Schreder's Urban Deco Business Segment Manager

Last time, we explained how we work with cities worldwide using the Schréder STUDIO approach to create lighting systems using existing components. We have a vast range of luminaires, poles and brackets that can be placed in endless configurations to flatter virtually any urban spaces, from hip central neighbourhoods to out-of-town attractions. 
 
The world’s most charming cities have grown organically, over centuries, so each one is unique. We see that as a feature, not a bug, and so we can tweak the technical performance of existing luminaires to fit in with local electrical, connectivity or performance requirements.
 

Custom Lanterns for the City of Lights

Over the decades, we’ve worked with some of the world’s most high-profile cities to help them achieve their goals, from a complete refresh of their urban landscape to restoring former glories. Still, given Paris’ reputation, we were honoured when the City of Lights chose us to be one of their partners for major civil works - a project where Schréder STUDIO proved to be the perfect approach.   

The story begins back in 2007, when the City of Paris launched a Climate and Energy Action Plan to reduce electricity consumption for its public lighting by 30% by 2020. Evesa, the company in charge of Paris’ public lighting, launched a first tender to replace 10,000 luminaires with LED light sources over a 30-month period - without losing any of the City of Light’s trademark sparkle. 

Paris is not just any city, and alongside the energy efficiency gains, which represent the primary reason for switching to LED lighting, the city knows the value of its strong visual identity. With the bistros, boulevards and banks of the Seine the backdrop to millions of special moments, the city of Paris is very attached to the aesthetics of its lighting furniture, which has long been characterised by rounded forms. 

Schréder tweaked the Citea luminaire to meet the specific needs of the City of Paris

The Citea luminaire has long been a classic in Paris and elsewhere, so for the tender, we redesigned what was inside. The aesthetic design was already approved by Paris’ Commission of Street Furniture: the overhauled photometric engine contains 56 LEDs, powered by 87W, with a colour temperature of 3,000K.
This bathes the streets of Paris in the most flattering light while ensuring safe, sustainable urban living and meeting the long-term lumen output requirements. We call it the Citea NG, for New Generation.

The Citea NG has a simple design that easily blends into all types of urban environments, while meeting Paris’ energy efficiency requirements. Moreover, because part of Paris’ charm is the diversity of its neighbourhoods, the Citea NG was designed with various mounting options (on top of a lamp-post, side-entry, suspended, catenary) to take into account the different shape of streets, buildings and supports in the Parisian landscape. That flexibility is at the heart of the Schréder STUDIO philosophy - we’re ready to adapt to any city’s requirements

Schréder ensured that the Citea NG suited the multiple configurations needed to light the City of Paris

Schréder STUDIO was the ideal way to work with the Parisian authorities to create a public lighting system that met stringent environmental standards while maintaining the city’s iconic aesthetics. It’s done that, and more - the original goal has been updated given the success of the initiatives taken, and the city now aims to become a carbon-neutral city powered entirely by renewable energy by 2050.
 
The overhaul of public lighting has played a significant part in the city’s achievements.
 

"Since 2004, a 23% drop in energy consumption has been observed, corresponding to 33 GWh or the equivalent of the energy consumption of the Greater Toulouse conurbation. This programme has already enabled a 33% reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions from public lighting.” explains the City of Paris’ May 2018 update on how the climate plan is going.


As part of the overhaul of the city’s lighting, we also came up with some extra bespoke tweaks for Place Vendome, which required a certain expertise. At whatever scale, with our decades of experience, we can ensure your city’s jewels shine as brightly... 


Breaking Rules, Creating Cityscapes: FLEXIA
 
Schréder STUDIO delivers bespoke technical designs for customers by using the flexibility of our whole range of products and fittings. We were delighted to tweak the Citea for Paris, but over the decades, we’ve had many requests from cities for urban lighting that they can put together, their way, to reflect their identity with touches like colour, specific shapes and fancy fittings. That led to us designing FLEXIA - which has adaptability built in. 
 
Lighting can sometimes be seen as a commodity, and luminaires considered as basic urban amenities. But it doesn’t have to be this way: FLEXIA breaks the rules, so cities can create them anew. With its built-in custom capabilities, FLEXIA offers opportunities to do something different. It supports our customer's vision for the purpose of a place, the heritage of a city or the visual identity of an institution.

FLEXIA can be adapted and customised to suit specific requirements of each city

There are no limits to imagination, and very few to FLEXIA! Endlessly adaptable, integrated with multiple IoT platforms and highly-rated by circular economy experts, FLEXIA and Schréder STUDIO are perfect partners to realise your urban vision: why not brighten your day by finding out more?
 

About the writer

Since he joined the company as a mechanical engineer in 1988, Jean-Luc has developed a wide range of urban lighting luminaires, always striving to improve design and efficiency. 
He has travelled the world, bringing a hands-on mentality to deliver the perfect solution for customers worldwide. There’s not a lot he doesn’t know about lighting! 

Connect with Jean-Luc on LinkedIn